Gaza cease-fire appears to unravel as both sides trade accusations

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Gaza cease-fire appears to unravel as both sides trade accusations

(CNN) — An Israeli attack on Rafah in southern Gaza killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 100 on Friday, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said on his Facebook page.

A cease-fire in Gaza appeared to be unraveling Friday only hours after it took effect as both sides accused each other of violating the fledgling truce.

Eight Palestinians were killed and 15 others injured by Israeli artillery shelling in Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, calling it a “violation of the ceasefire.”

An Israeli official told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Hamas has been attacking Israeli forces inside Gaza on Friday morning, describing it as “a grave violation” of the cease-fire.

The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the Palestinian reports of shelling in Rafah. But it said that rockets and mortars had been fired into Israel later Friday.

The humanitarian truce had been announced Thursday by the United Nations and United States, after weeks of fighting and more than 1,500 deaths in Gaza, most of them civilians. It came into effect at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza (1 a.m. ET).

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said the halt to hostilities was planned to last for 72 hours and provide an opportunity to seek a more lasting solution to the conflict.

“During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place,” a joint statement by the United Nations and United States said.

Many Gaza residents have seen their neighborhoods hit hard and loved ones killed or wounded since Israel began Operation Protective Edge against Hamas on July 8.

Around a quarter of a million people in the small, impoverished territory have been displaced by the conflict, according to the United Nations. That’s about 14% of Gaza’s population of 1.8 million.

The cease-fire allows food and medical supplies to come and in, better care for the injured and burial of the dead.

Under the truce, Israeli and Palestinian officials are expected to meet in Cairo to try to reach “a durable cease-fire,” the U.N. and U.S. statement said. “The parties will be able to raise issues of concern in these negotiations.”

Tunnel demolition to continue

It remains to be seen whether the two sides, which are bitterly opposed on key issues, will be able to reach a breakthrough.

Previous cease-fire attempts in the conflict have failed to take hold or lasted only briefly.

Hamas has said it wants an end to Israel’s blockade on Gaza, which restricts the movement of goods and people. It also wants the release of prisoners detained by the Israelis.

Israel, meanwhile, has says it is aiming for the demilitarization of Hamas-controlled Gaza, removing the threat that militant weapons pose to Israeli civilians.

Before the cease-fire plan was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israeli troops would continue destroying Hamas’ network of tunnels that run under the border into Israel with or without a truce.

While “neither side will advance … Israel will be able to continue its defensive operations for those tunnels that are behind its lines,” Kerry explained.

‘A difficult road’

Animosity between the two sides, which have gone to war three times in the past six years, runs deep. Israel, like the United States, designates Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas is committed to armed struggle against Israel.

Kerry called planned the talks “a lull of opportunity … to try to find a way to … obtain a sustainable cease-fire,” but admitted there are “no guarantees.” The negotiations will be mediated by Egypt and to include a small American delegation.

As Kerry noted, “Everyone knows it has not been easy to get to this point, and everyone knows it will not be easy to get beyond this point.”

Saeb Erakat, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, a separate group from Hamas, said the talks will include “all Palestinian factions.”

“It’s a difficult road. It’s a bumpy road,” said Erakat, a veteran Palestinian negotiator. “I am hoping against hope that we can do every possible effort with the help of everyone out there in order to ensure that we can reach a permanent cease-fire.”

U.N. official talks of potential war crimes

At least 1,452 people have been killed in Gaza, and 8,360 wounded, during the current conflict, Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. That’s more than the 1,417 Palestinians that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said died in the 22 days of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which spanned 2008 and 2009.

Those killed in the current hostilities include 327 children and 166 women, the Gaza health ministry reports.

The bloodshed prompted the United Nations’ top human rights official to warn that war crimes may have been committed, accusing Israel of “deliberate defiance of obligations (to) international law.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay referred to the shelling of homes, schools, hospitals and U.N. premises, while insisting, “We cannot allow this impunity, we cannot allow this lack of accountability to go on.”

“None of this appears, to me, to be accidental,” Pillay said.

Pressure is coming from around the world over the growing civilian casualties in the conflict, which Israel says it tries to limit.

Chile, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador have pulled their ambassadors out of Tel Aviv to protest the Israeli offensive. Even the United States — an erstwhile ally of Israel — believes “the Israelis need to do more” to prevent civilian deaths, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters.

‘So much loss of life’

Israel has been protected from many of Hamas’ rockets by its Iron Dome defense system, though some have still hit populated areas. That includes a rocket that struck a neighborhood Thursday in Qiryat Gat, about 20 miles from Gaza, seriously injuring a man and setting a car afire, Israeli police said.

Three civilians have been killed in Israel since the conflict began, while many more have been forced to take shelter as rockets rained overhead. Sixty-one Israeli soldiers have been killed during the hostilities, with five of those deaths occurring Thursday evening.

In Gaza, the situation is dire.

Clean water is inaccessible for most. And some 3,600 people have lost their homes.